Q&A Wood burning stove clearances - too close to glass?

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QandA

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Staff member
Nov 27, 2012
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Question:

We would like to put a Jotul stove or glass fronted stove in a new southern exposure glass fronted corner addition we are building. The room is crowded so there will not be much room for the stove; furthermore the view out the room is great, so I would like to see the stove and the stove only.

My question is, given the constraints I mentioned , are there any stoves that are "insulated" on the three sides of the stove you don't face? The glass people say the corner windows behind the stove will crack if its too close to the glass and not insulated. I notice most of the companies sell "shields" but none have any pictures or information about them. Do any look good? Do they typically hang off the stove itself or are they big, ugly screens that will block our view? Any information on stoves, or accessories, that will allow us to put the stove in a glass corner location would be greatly appreciated.



Answer:

Most stove shields are sheet metal, usually painted black, and hang off of the stove itself.

In my 20 years of experience, I have never seen glass crack from being too close to the stove. However, some glass has a wood frame and you would need to maintain the manufacturers stated clearances from that wood.

How close is too close? Depends on the stove, glass and other factors, but I would have no problem putting a stove with a rear shield as close as 12" from the top edge of the stove to the glass (corner setting) as long as the glass frame was all-metal.

Some stoves have convection (double wall)chambers built-in, so they do not need a shield. These stoves can be put as close as 9" from a wall. Check out the Avalon or Lopi from Travis Industries at the links below- these are two good examples of convection stoves with shells.


Link: Lopi Stoves

Link: Avalon Stoves
 
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